This guest post is from Krista Wright, the executive director of Polar Bears International. We’ve partnered with PBI to share a fascinating look at polar bears in the wild using Google Maps. -Ed.

In Inuit poetry, the polar bear is known as Pihoqahiak, the ever-wandering one. Some of the most majestic and elusive creatures in the world, polar bears travel hundreds of miles every year, wandering the tundra and Arctic sea ice in search of food and mates. Today, with the help of Street View, we’re celebrating International Polar Bear Day by sharing an intimate look at polar bears in their natural habitat.

We’ve joined forces with Google Maps to collect Street View imagery from a remote corner of Canada’s tundra: Churchill, Manitoba, home to one of the largest polar bear populations on the planet. With the help of outfitters Frontiers North, the Google Maps team mounted the Street View Trekker onto a specially designed “Tundra Buggy,” allowing us to travel across this fragile landscape without interfering with the polar bears or other native species. Through October and November we collected Street View imagery from the shores of Hudson’s Bay as the polar bears waited for the sea ice to freeze over.

Modern cartography and polar bear conservation
There’s more to this effort than images of cuddly bears, though. PBI has been working in this region for more than 20 years, and we’ve witnessed firsthand the profound impact of warmer temperatures and melting sea ice on the polar bear’s environment. Understanding global warming, and its impact on polar bear populations, requires both global and regional benchmarks. Bringing Street View to Canada's tundra establishes a baseline record of imagery associated with specific geospatial data—information that’s critical if we’re to understand and communicate the impact of climate change on their sensitive ecosystem. As we work to safeguard their habitat, PBI can add Street View imagery to the essential tools we use to assess and respond to the biggest threat facing polar bears today.

We also use the Google Maps API to support our Bear Tracker, which illustrates the frozen odyssey these bears embark on every year. As winter approaches and the sea ice freezes over, polar bears head out onto Hudson Bay to hunt for seals. Bear Tracker uses of satellite monitors and an interactive Google Map to display their migration for a global audience.

Mapping the communities of Canada’s Arctic
Google’s trip north builds on work they’ve done in the Arctic communities of Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit. In the town of Churchill, the Google Maps team conducted a community MapUp, which let participants use Map Maker to edit and add to the Google Map. From the Town Centre Complex, which includes the local school, rink and movie theatre, to the bear holding facility used to keep polar bears who have wandered into town until their release can be planned, the citizens of the Churchill made sure Google Maps reflects the community that they know.
But building an accurate and comprehensive map of Canada’s north also means heading out of town to explore this country’s expansive tundra. And thanks to this collaboration with Google Maps, people around the world now have the opportunity to virtually experience Canada’s spectacular landscape—and maybe take a few moments to wander in the footsteps of the polar bear.Posted by Krista Wright, Executive Director of Polar Bears International

Attention Toronto, Waterloo, and Montreal nonprofits! Google Canada is excited to announce our spring round of Google Community Grants to help fund organizations working on projects that support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education for underrepresented communities, internet adoption, online safety or greening our communities.

The application for community grants is currently open with an application deadline of March 31st 2014. Google community grants are intended for local nonprofits and public schools, so if your organization has a project underway in one of the areas listed above please remember to submit your application online through one of our three Community Grant Programs:

Through our Google Canada Community Grant programs we have had the opportunity to support a range of initiatives from the 2013 Toronto regional All Science Challenge as part of the Let's Talk Science Outreach program to helping the Mobilys Foundation develop their first school self-serve module.

When evaluating proposals, impact matters most. We’re looking for projects with a measurable impact in the community, where Google’s in-kind or volunteer resources may help maximize the impact, as well as your organization’s track record on related programs.

If you believe you have a project or program that fits these guidelines, please submit your proposal today using one of the links above! Posted by Lauren Skelly, Google Canada Public Policy and Government Affairs

Today, the Google Maps team collected Street View imagery of the Rideau Canal Skateway, the world’s largest skating rink.

Cody Ceci of the NHL's Ottawa Senators wearing the Trekker on the Rideau Canal Skateway

Every winter, tourists and commuters skate through the heart of downtown Ottawa on the frozen water of the Rideau Canal, where they can cozy up next to an outdoor bonfire with a hot chocolate and “Beavertail” – a local pastry favourite – in hand. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, soon users from around the world will be able to virtually explore this amazing frozen waterway in Google Maps.

This morning the Google Maps Street View team skated the nearly 8 kilometre Rideau Canal Skateway, using the Trekker backpack to collect panoramic imagery of this scenic skating rink; from Dows Lake all the way to the base of Ottawa’s Parliament Hill.Joining the Google Maps team - and no stranger to a pair of skates - was Cody Ceci, a defenseman with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. Ceci tried on the Trekker and helped the Google Maps team capture imagery from the canal.

The Google Maps team collects Street View imagery of the skateway

The Street View imagery will be available in Google Maps in the near future - so get those skates sharpened and get ready to explore this frozen icon of Canadian culture.Posted by Aaron Brindle, Google Canada

Now it’s time to do it again: we're calling for students ages 13-18 to submit their brilliant ideas for the fourth annual Google Science Fair, in partnership with Virgin Galactic, Scientific American, LEGO Education and National Geographic. All you need to participate is curiosity and an Internet connection. Project submissions are due May 12, and the winners will be announced at the finalist event at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., on September 22.

In addition to satisfying your curious mind, your project can also win you some pretty cool prizes. This year’s grand prize winner will have the chance to join the Virgin Galactic team at Spaceport America in New Mexico as they prepare for space flight and will be among the first to welcome the astronauts back to Earth, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour and a full year’s digital access to Scientific American magazine for their school. Age category winners will have a choice between going behind the scenes at the LEGO factory in Billund, Denmark or an amazing experience at either a Google office or National Geographic.

For the 2014 competition, we’ll also give two new awards to celebrate even more talented young scientists:

The Computer Science Award will be given to a project that champions innovation and excellence in the field of computer science.

Local Award Winners - students whose projects have attempted to address an issue relevant to their community - will be honored in select locations globally.

And the Scientific American Science In Action award will once again honor a project that addresses a health, resource or environmental challenge. The winner will receive a year’s mentoring from Scientific American and a $50,000 grant toward their project.

In between creating masterpieces like the Sistine Chapel and “Madonna and Child,” Michelangelo dissected cadavers in the hopes of understanding how the human body worked so he could paint it accurately. He’s not the only one: there has long been a connection between science and art. And it’s true today more than ever, as modern artists use technology for inspiration, inventing ways to give life to code, letting it spill from the screen and onto the canvas. We call this “DevArt,” and this summer, we’re teaming up with the Barbican in London and their Digital Revolution exhibition to celebrate DevArt in an interactive gallery. And we want you to be a part of it.

As part of this exhibition, we’re looking for the next up-and-coming developer artist. This is your opportunity to express your creativity, and to have your work featured in the Barbican and seen by millions of people around the world. To throw your hat in the ring, build a project on the DevArt site and show us what you would create. From there, we’ll pick one creator whose work will sit alongside three of the world’s finest interactive artists who are also creating installations for DevArt: Karsten Schmidt, Zach Lieberman, and the duo Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet.

The exhibition will open at the Barbican this summer. Until then, visit g.co/devart, where you can submit your own project. If you’re not the creative coding type, visit the site to see some incredible art and follow the artists’ creative process—from concept and early sketches to the finished piece—on their respective Project Pages. You'll get a rare look into artists’ ways of working with modern technologies (including some Google products), and maybe even get inspired to create something yourself.

If you had the chance to make your mark in today’s art world with technology as your canvas, what would you create? We’d like you to show us.

It’s got beaches out the front door and mountains in its backyard. Yes, Vancouver is beautiful.

And just in case you need further convincing, Google Maps has unveiled 45° imagery of Vancouver. This imagery allows you to explore the dramatic profile of Vancouver’s skyline and to virtually fly over iconic landmarks such as BC Place and Lions Gate Bridge.

To see the new imagery of Vancouver, simply zoom into an area while in Satellite mode. Where we have 45° imagery available, the imagery will switch from an overhead to 45° angle as you zoom all the way in. You can then pan smoothly across the map to get a richer view of the area.

For the very best virtual tour of Vancouver, make sure to check out the New Google Maps. It has all the things you love about Google Earth directly integrated into the map, so you can travel the entire planet without a plug-in. Or a passport.